Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Soul Men

It's hard to process what happened this weekend. Actor and comedian Bernie Mac dies in a Chicago hospital from pnemonia on Saturday. Isaac Hayes,65, found beside a still-running treadmill at his home in Memphis on Sunday.

I was in Las Vegas last week and after a three hours of a high-pressure sales pitch for a mediocre resort, my wife and I were given free tickets to see George Wallace. Towards the end of his act, Wallace did a Bernie Mac impersonation. He admitted that it needed some work, but it was good enough to remind the audience how funny Mac's stand-up once was. Wallace moved on to the next joke without saying much about the comedian's condition. Perhaps he knew something he wasn't able to share.

Hayes and Mac have left a lot for us to remember them with. Along with Hayes' productions for other artists, solo work, Mac's television and film roles, they recently finished work on a film called "Soul Men," with Sam Jackson.